Ages
by cienne
Summary: If only Kurama remebered, he would say it was during Hiei's birth that he fell in love. Rated T for now.


AGES

**AGES**

cienne

DISCLAIMER: (scratches head) I don't own the characters. Somehow… I was inspired to do this. Please don't blame me. (cries)

Prologue is still missing, sorry.

Yukina came rushing in the living room when she heard Hiei scream.

"Hi-chan…!"

The eight-month old child was bawling his eyes out, his small arms waving frantically. Hugging him in a death grip and sucking on his cheek was Kurama, now a year and a half old.

"Shu-chan!" Yukina chastised and bent down to help her poor brother. Kurama's eyebrows crossed in confusion but that didn't stop him from making Hiei his milk bottle.

Yukina stroked Hiei's back to soothe him while trying to think of how to peel off Kurama from his brother without hurting him. She gently held Kurama's chin and pulled. The tiny redhead let Hiei's cheek go with a pop.

Now it was the redhead who started crying as Hiei quieted down now that his cheek was free.

"Quiet down, Shu-chan. Hi-chan isn't food." Yukina said, wiping Hiei's reddened cheek with his bib. She gently pried Kurama's hands from around Hiei and her brother eagerly held his arms out to her begging to be taken away from the redheaded monster.

"My baby!" Kurama was yelling, grabbing onto Hiei's legs as Yukina made to carry him. Yukina almost fell but regained her balance amidst her surprise.

"Shu-chan!" she snapped as her heart raced in panic. She could've crushed Hiei if she had fallen!

The tiny redhead stared at her with tear-filled eyes. "M-my baby…" he hiccupped, one small hand pulling at Hiei's feet.

Yukina sighed. "Gomen, Shu-chan."

"What happened?"

Yukina turned in surprise. "Oh, baa-san. Kurama's at it again." Yukina said with a sigh.

Genkai came over and pried Kurama's hand off Hiei's leg. "Ah, Kurama-chan is a bad boy." she chastised and carried him. "You're always making Hiei-chan cry."

Kurama made a grab for Hiei and Yukina almost fell again as the redhead's small hand caught Hiei's sleeve and pulled.

"Oi, oi." Genkai said and pried him off again.

"My baby!" Kurama was screaming, crying again.

"Hai, hai." Genkai said as she bounced him on her arms. "Settle down now."

Yukina covered Hiei's head with her hand to soothe him. "If you scare Hi-chan all the time, he won't play with you anymore."

Said Hi-chan yawned and nuzzled against Yukina's chest, tired and sleepy.

"You guys take a nap then you can play again, okay?" Genkai was asking Kurama. The redhead hiccupped but nodded.

"And don't hurt Hi-chan. He's just a baby. Babies are small people not food, okay?"

Kurama nodded, lashes still wet with tears. "Want sleep my baby?" he asked.

Yukina giggled at Kurama's attempt at talking. Even if his development came at a rapid pace, he was still just a baby after all.

"Okay, I'll let you sleep with Hi-chan if you behave."

Kurama smiled and settled against Genkai. "My baby…" he said.

Genkai shook her head, amused. Kurama had really grown attached to Hiei. Since Shiori, Kurama's mom, became a widow she had to work full time to be able to support Kurama and herself. Often she would leave Kurama with Yukina so that she could work. When Hiei was born, Kurama had been mesmerized by the small, pale creature and would not leave his side. The young redhead seemed even happy that his mom would leave so he can see Hiei again.

True enough, Kurama had his arms around Hiei again as they lay side by side on Hiei's crib after getting cleaned up by Yukina.

Yukina sighed and covered them with a small blanket. Hiei didn't mind having the redhead cling to him and was soon fast asleep.

"Shu-chan…" she said, smiling and shaking her head. If Hiei had been born a girl she'd be really worried for his future with Kurama clinging to him like that. But since Hiei was born a boy, and a cute one at that, she couldn't have been more thankful.

Thank God for small miracles.

Yukina watched as Kurama played with Hiei. The three year old was teaching her brother how to color and brought his coloring books with him.

Hiei was getting bored and was staring very intently at the red crayon he was holding that it made Yukina giggle.

Suddenly, Hiei put the crayon in his mouth and bit off a chunk.

"No!" Kurama and Yukina yelled at the same time.

Hiei jumped, his red eyes opened wide in shock and started crying.

Yukina went over to them, cooing at Hiei and trying to get the crayon from the two year old. Kurama patted Hiei's back. "You don't eat crayons. They taste nasty."

Hiei hiccupped and spat the crayon on Yukina's waiting hand. His teeth were all red from the crayon.

Kurama laughed and grabbed a blue crayon and smeared it all over his front teeth. "Gaah!" he roared, showing Hiei how blue his teeth were.

Hiei blinked… and started laughing, lashes still wet with tears.

"Ah, don't do that, Shu-chan." Yukina said. "He'll try to eat some again."

Kurama grinned as Hiei continued laughing.

Hiei's chest rose up and down, his breathing a bit fast but steady. His small, pouty mouth puffed out small warm breaths. Cheeks that were chubby and smooth were becoming a healthy pink. Long lashes fluttered softly as he slept.

Green eyes took this all in.

Small fingers twitched every now and then as the small body dreamed. Even his pink toes moved in time with them. The pajamas the small body wore looked too big on him.

Red hair fell over a young face as it smiled in amusement.

"Shu-chan…?"

Kurama turned to see Yukina coming inside Hiei's room with a pile of clothes.

"I thought you wanted to play with Hi-chan?" Yukina asked as she went over Hiei's closet to deposit his clothes fresh from the laundry.

Kurama shook his head. "He's sleeping." he replied and went back to watching the younger boy.

Yukina paused, puzzled. "You can wake him up. It's almost eight, anyway. I can take you to the park to play."

"It's okay."

Yukina's eyebrows rose and she shrugged going back to work.

When she came back awhile later Kurama was sleeping beside Hiei, his small hand clutching Hiei's.

"You put it here." Kurama said and dumped a bucketful of sand on top of a small mountain he was making.

The redhead paused as he realized that Hiei wasn't looking at him. The younger boy's red gaze was fixed on a young girl and her little puppy as they played together.

The young girl squealed in delight as the small Labrador chased her and barked at her. Suddenly, the young girl picked up the puppy and hugged it to her chest, nuzzling its face and laughing when the puppy licked her face.

Hiei blinked and looked back at Kurama.

The redhead stood up and went over to the girl, who was probably almost five like Hiei was. Hiei watched as Kurama smiled and spoke with her. The young girl nodded and handed her puppy over to Kurama. The redhead bowed and walked back to the sandbox.

Hiei's eyes were going wide in surprise.

"Here you go, Hi-chan." Kurama said and placed the puppy in his lap.

The younger boy made a small, surprised sound. The puppy tried walking away but Kurama held him down on Hiei's lap.

Hiei's eyes were shining in happiness. Small hands stroked the puppy's head and Kurama smiled when Hiei laughed as the puppy barked playfully at him.

"You wanna play tag with him?" Kurama asked.

Hiei sneezed, startling them and Kurama laughed. "He jumped."

The younger man snickered and hugged the puppy closer to him. Kurama frowned, a bit annoyed at the small action but pushed those thoughts away.

"Are you playing?" the small girl had approached them.

Kurama didn't want another person to play with them so he shook his head. "Can we borrow your puppy?" he asked her.

The young girl watched the smaller boy hug her puppy, looking like he didn't want to let go. She sighed, exasperated at that. It wasn't like she was going to make him give Ginu back right away.

Hiei sneezed again and the young girl looked at him in alarm. "Are you allergic?"

Both boys looked at each other in confusion.

"What's that?" Kurama asked his hand going to Hiei's back to pull him closer.

The young girl rolled her eyes. "It's when you get sick when you get near things you're not supposed to."

"Like what?"

"Like cats or dogs or bees. Didn't you learn that in school?"

Kurama was relieved. Yukina-nechan never said anything like that.

"School?" it was Hiei who asked.

"I'm in second grade. How about you?"

Kurama was awed. So they were talking to an onechan already. "How old are you?"

The girl looked offended. "I'm eight. My name's Keiko, by the way. And you?"

The redhead smiled. "My name's Shuichi Minamino, call me Kurama. This is Hiei Jaganshi. I'm five and he's four."

Hiei sneezed again and shook his head, taking in a big gulp of air.

"Someone must be talking about you." Keiko muttered.

Kurama peered at Hiei. "Are you okay?"

"Hn."

Ginu barked at Keiko, wanting to play again.

"Put him down so we can play." Keiko told Hiei.

The boy glared at her and clutched at the puppy tighter. "Hn."

Kurama grabbed his bucket. "You know how to make sand castles?" he asked Keiko.

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Of course, I'm no dum-dum."

The redhead smiled. "Go make one then." he challenged.

Hiei watched as they started turning sand. Ginu wriggled in his arms but he liked the feel of the soft fur against him too much to want to let go.

Kurama frowned as Hiei sneezed twice in a row and inhaled deeply as if he couldn't breathe. "Do you want to go home?"

Hiei shook his head.

"…-chan..!"

The redhead looked back to see Yukina-nechan running over to them. The crepes she bought for them lay scattered on the ground. Her red eyes were wide with fear as she hurried towards them.

Kurama quickly looked back at Hiei in panic, wondering what was making Yukina-nechan frantic.

"Hi-chan, no!" she was yelling.

Kurama's green eyes went wide as Hiei seem to fall down so slowly in front of him. His body seemed to freeze in shock as Hiei's small body lay sprawled on the sand box, his dark hair covering his face.

Loud barks echoed in his head and Yukina-nechan yelling Hi-chan's name. Time seemed to stop as he bent down and realized Hiei wasn't breathing anymore.

"Hi-chan!"

Kurama watched through the glass windows as Hiei lay on a white bed that was too big for him. There were tubes and needles attached to his pale arms and a small breathing mask covered his face.

"Hi-chan…"

Kurama felt as if his heart would stop when Hiei had fallen down and didn't answer. He almost blacked out when he felt that Hiei was no longer breathing but Yukina had shaken him awake.

"Call for help...!" she had yelled, tears streaming from her eyes.

Kurama had forgotten what happened after that. All he remembered was hearing sirens and looking at Hiei's pale face as they covered it with a small breathing mask. And then Hiei was rushed inside a room that said EMERGENCY ROOM and they had to wait a very long time until he was rolled out again.

The doctor said Hiei went into an anaphylactic shock from allergic reactions. Hiei was actually very allergic to dogs, including their breath, smell and fur. Yukina kept crying saying it was her fault for not taking care of Hi-chan better.

Kurama felt it was really his fault. If he hadn't given Hiei that stupid puppy then he wouldn't be suffering like this. The redhead bit his lip as tears filled his eyes. Hi-chan looked so small lying on his bed. Those needles on his arms must hurt him a lot, too. It should be him who's supposed to be suffering now instead of Hi-chan.

"Kurama-chan." Genkai appeared beside him.

The redhead ignored her and kept watching Hiei through the glass window.

"Kurama, Shiori's here. You should go home and eat."

"Shuichi-kun…"

Kurama turned at his mom's voice and rushed to her, the horror of what happened finally sinking in and buried his face on her belly and crying his heart out. "Kaasan…! I almost killed Hi-chan…! I'm sorry!"

Both women froze in shock. To think that a small child would be thinking things like that!

"No! Calm down, musuko." Shiori soothed. "Hiei's fine. It was an accident. You didn't know."

Kurama shook his head. "I wanted him to play with that stupid dog! It wasn't even that cute! Sorry, Hi-chan…! I'm so sorry…!"

A soft hand rubbed his back. "It wasn't your fault, Shu-chan." It was Yukina.

Kurama grabbed her close, sharing her despair at almost losing Hiei. "Gomen nasai, ne-chan. I didn't mean to! I'm sorry…!"

"Ssshh… Hiei's okay now. We've learned our lesson."

Kurama nodded. "I swear I'll protect him, no matter what. I just want Hi-chan to be happy."

"I bet you've made him happy. He's always wanted a dog, too." Yukina said but tears were streaming from her eyes as she said this. "We'll just have to be more careful from now on, ne?"

Kurama nodded, frantically.

Shiori smiled and wiped her own tears. "You better get some rest, too. I'll come back later with food." she told Yukina.

"But you have work tomorrow."

Shiori shook her head. "Kurama would want to stay with Hiei-chan, I'm sure. I'll bring him with me later."

Yukina nodded. "I'll ask the doctor if they can sleep together."

Kurama fed Hiei another spoonful of jelly.

Genkai laughed as Hiei scowled at the bland taste but the young boy remained silent. Yesterday they caught Kurama drinking Hiei's medicine because Hiei said it was bitter. They had scolded Kurama and told him Hiei would never get better if he did that. Hiei probably didn't want that to happen again.

"Can you breathe okay?" Kurama asked Hiei this after every five minutes. Hiei hn'ed and made a face as Kurama fed him more jelly.

Genkai smiled.

"Here."

Hiei leaned up and took a lick from Kurama's ice cream. His red eyes shone in happiness as Kurama let him finish it up.

"Thank you." Hiei said, politely, like what Yukina-nechan has taught him.

Kurama smiled. "You want some more?"

Hiei licked his lip, wanting to say yes but Yukina-nechan told him never to impose on anyone. So he shook his head and politely declined.

Suddenly, Kurama bent down and licked his cheek.

Kurama grabbed the hem of his shirt to wipe Hiei's cheek. "You have ice cream here." he laughed.

Hiei glared and frowned as he was groomed. "Hn."

"Want to come over later. My mom bought me a new game?"

Hiei's eyes shone. "A fighting game?"

Truthfully, Kurama (even though barely eight) loved strategy games more than anything else. But Hiei liked fighting games a lot so he pretended to like them too so that Shiori would buy those kind of video games more.

"It's the one with the guy in samurai outfit that we saw in the store."

The younger boy was almost trembling in excitement. "I'll ask Kina-nechan."

So it was decided that Hiei would sleep over since it wasn't a school night. Hiei grabbed Kurama's arm before they parted for their homes.

"Wait for me." he growled. "Don't start without me."

Kurama nodded with a smile. "Sure. It's no fun playing without you. You're the only one I want to play with."

Author's Notes: This isn't the end of this chapter. Some more parts are missing, so please check it out again. Thank you. Please read and review.


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